Having a Problem Saving PDFs Using the Adobe Reader 8?

This article was featured in Library Notes, #44 (Spring/Summer 2007).

We have had reports that the newest version of the Adobe Reader (version 8) is unable to save PDFs when the web site generates extremely long URLs. When you try to save an article in the Adobe Reader and the URLs are too long the "save as" window briefly displays then just as quickly disappears. So far we have only had complaints from people using ScienceDirect. However, as more people upgrade to version 8 of the Adobe Reader we believe that we will discover more databases will have this problem. There is no known fix at this time and Adobe has not announced when or if they will fix the problem.

While we can’t fix the problem we have found a way to save files when you encounter this problem.

Internet Explorer Users:
1.    Right-click on the link to the PDF you want to save
2.    Click "Save Target As"

3.    You should now be prompted to save the file.
4.    Name the file. Be sure that the file extension is .pdf.

Firefox Users:
1.    Right-click on the link to the PDF you want to save
2.    Click "Save Link As…"

 
3.    You should now be prompted to save the file.
4.    Name the file. Be sure that the file extension is .pdf.